Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) evokes many of the same issues about human responsibility as does R. U.R. This novel also deals with questions about the future of humanity and asks serious questions about man's humanity to man.

Prometheus Bound, written by Aeschylus in the fifth century B.C., is an example from classical literature that explores how man deals with fate and with man's inhumanity toward man.

In The Insect Play, written in 1922, Capek uses insects to represent man's vices and weaknesses.

War With the Newts (1937) is often considered to be Capek's best novel. In this novel, man is challenged by that which he has created, just as in R. U.R.

Eugene O'Neill's Dynamo (1929) examines a man's obsession with technology and a machine he has created.